Kennards Hire help John Holland rebuild history

Wellington is a regional town in New South Wales west of Sydney and famous for the Wellington Caves, which feature stunning limestone stalactite formations.

The recent Wellington Railway Bridge Upgrade saw Kennards Hire Rail provide John Holland Country Regional Network, a division of leading construction company John Holland Group, with a complete project package solution.

Trini Cifrian, Project Engineer Civil and Structures at John Holland Country Regional Network, explained the scope of works.

“The main focus of the upgrade involved replacing the 4.5 metre rivet steel H-beam cross girders and 12 metre long stringers, which run parallel to the track under the 180 metre long bridge.”

The bridge spans the Macquarie River and services both passenger and freight trains. It was the fourth in a series of twelve built across the New South Wales railway network between 1871-87.

“We had a very open dialogue with Kennards Hire Rail,” said Trini. “We told them what we needed and they offered advice and provided the best solutions.

“There were a number of specific compliance requirements that needed to be met, particularly with lighting and minimal noise emission from generators so as not to disturb nearby residents. Kennards Hire was able to accommodate all our needs.”

Matt Martin from Kennards Hire Dubbo said, “Being a 24 hour worksite one of the challenges we needed to overcome was eliminating shadow spots created by lights.

“We arranged a demonstration of the luminescence of our new link lights at the working areas above and below the bridge. After seeing them in operation, John Holland was very impressed and we supplied 90 link lights, which were placed in two rows above and two rows below the bridge.”

Specifically designed for rail works and similar in size to a street light, link lights are only 110v, adding to safety. Additionally, they are highly efficient. A 4kVA generator is able to power 280 metres of lighting. This is achieved by connecting each light by a lead to the next eight, 10 or 14 metres apart.

As well as the link lights Kennards Hire Rail supplied 13 lighting towers, new solar powered lighting towers and seven new, area soft lights. These produce a 360 degree light dispersion and were used in the car park, site entrance ways and bridge access areas.

Kennards Hire Rail and Kennards Hire Dubbo also supplied John Holland with an extensive range of sundry equipment to establish two compounds, one on either side of the bridge.

“With no water or electricity on site, we delivered rainwater tanks and pressure pumps and arranged for water to be carted to site to fill the tanks,” said Matt. “The kitchenette and toilet blocks were then plumbed off the water tanks.”

Two 20kVA generators were provided to power the pumps and site offices as well as the extensive amount of lighting. An inverter was supplied with the generators to reduce the output to 110v for the link lights and storage units were delivered for tools and equipment. 

Trini was extremely satisfied with the level of service John Holland received, saying, “The advantage of dealing with Kennards Hire Rail is drawing on their in-depth knowledge of the rail industry and compliance requirements.

 

 

“Matt from the Dubbo branch went above and beyond. He was only a phone call away and helped whenever and wherever possible. On a project this size with so much happening that’s really important for us and added to the project running smoothly,” Trini said.